C-Clear Ice, owned by Chris and Carolyn Crossett of Benkelman, started delivering ice to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in McCook in January. Wal-Mart manager Tom Lambing said Wal-Mart approved C-Clear as a local distributor, and the Crossetts have moved their ice merchandisers into the store. "He's very competitive on price," Lambing said. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge]

BENKELMAN -- It took two years of paperwork and reviews, signatures and approvals -- repeated once because the paperwork got lost -- but C-Clear Ice of Benkelman is now delivering ice to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in McCook.

C-Clear owner Chris Crossett is excited about the opportunity to enhance the business he started two years ago in a former bowling alley at the top of the hill in Benkelman.

At the McCook Wal-Mart, C-Clear has replaced the former ice distributor, a company based in Canada with distribution out of Omaha. Chris said that the big difference between his company and the Omaha company -- and a huge advantage -- is the size of C-Clear's bag and its price. "We sell an eight-pound bag of ice for the same price they sell a five-pound bag," Chris said Monday morning, after making his weekly delivery to Wal-Mart.

Chris said his competitor has monopolized the ice market in Nebraska for several years, and has dropped from a seven-pound bag to the five-pound bag, without a drop in price. "They kept the price high, but lowered the amount of ice," Crossett said. And because the company bought up smaller Nebraska-based ice companies, he said, "people had no choice."

Crossett said he'll deliver 100 eight-pound bags and 50 20-pound bags of ice to the McCook Wal-Mart store once a week through the end of the winter. "That'll quadruple in the summer," and he'll make deliveries three times a week, he said.

Wal-Mart considers Crossett a "local distributor," which requires the approval of local and district managers, credit checks, and review and approval by Wal-Mart headquarters officials and buyers before final contracts could be signed.

After a three-month probationary period, C-Clear Ice could request that it be allowed to deliver to other Wal-Mart stores.

Chris knows firsthand what it's like to deal with ice companies -- he and his wife, Carolyn, moved to Benk-elman to run the bowling alley and diner. "We were using six to seven bags of ice a day at the diner," Chris said. Talks by local economic developers encouraged local initiative, Chris said, and "out of the blue, we checked into ice."

Chris, Carolyn and a professor from the University of Nebraska wrote a business plan, the bank loaned money for startup costs, and the bowling alley became an ice-manufacturing plant.

C-Clear uses double-filtered, reverse-osmosis-treated water to make 10 tons of ice in 24 hours. There's a bin that holds 22 tons of ice before bagging and a storage freezer that can hold 60 tons of bagged ice -- "if I stack it right," Chris said.

Chris runs routes with three refrigerated trucks, and is looking for more truck drivers/delivery people.

His routes take him to "Mom-and-Pop stores" and "the big guys."

"I promised from the very beginning," Chris said, "I won't sell ice to the Moms-and-Pops any higher than I do to the big guys, no matter what quantity they buy. Everybody pays the same price."

C-Clear Ice LLC and the Crossetts' Strykers diner is located at 1309 A Street in Benkelman, next door, on the south, to the TimeSaver's convenience store. The Crossetts can be reached at (308) 423-5558.